In August 2012 the White House issued a Presidential Executive Order to address mental health challenges. Following that order, an interagency task force was formed and co-chaired by the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The administration outlined three cross-agency priority goals focused on reducing barriers to mental health care; enhancing access for service members, veterans, and their families with mental health needs; and supporting research on effective treatments. The agencies have each implemented one or more public awareness campaigns.

Achievement of these goals requires high-functioning health care providers who are able to respond to the mental health needs of their patients. Prior research suggests that provider burnout, stress, and mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress, depression, and anxiety can hinder provider and team functioning. The project described here focused on the evidence for peer-to-peer interventions for health care providers to determine whether these intervention have beneficial impacts on workforce outcomes. The findings will be of interest to health care systems, policymakers, and practitioners wishing to add peer-to-peer interventions to their efforts and/or to improve mental health of health care practitioners.

None of the authors has any conflict of interest to declare.

The research reported here was completed in July 2021 and underwent security review with the sponsor and the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review before public release.